A h-feat

[Elischua]

Recently I have come up with how to use 'h' letter in the Roussish orthography. Insofar as etymologically /h/ after a consonant is impossible - properly it's stint at all for Proto-Slawic - so, it can be used in a digraph with another consonant letter to block the palatalization reaction between the consonant and a front-vowel letter, especially before 'y' when followed by another vowel, e.g. while 'tya' or 'tyu' result in [ʧɐ] or [ʧ], respectively, 'thya' or 'thyu' would've given [cɐ~t^jɐ] or [c~t^j] resp. There is no known precedent of *h+j+V in PSl, so there can be no reaction like palatalization or so expected therefrom, thus any consonant before it is like being hedged from 'y(+V)'. The consonant would be in that case only palatalized, but not palatal.

This widens the horizon for writing down many informal word forms. It can be helpful for rendering say proper names in their easy "pally" manner, like these women's ones: Xarithya [xɑ`recɐ~xɑ`ret^jɐ] (otherwise, Xaritya would've given [xɑ`reʧɐ]), Hanoushya~Hannoushya [hɑ`nuɕɐ~hɑ`nus<sup>j</sup>ɐ], Wfdhya~Wudhya [`wywɟɐ~`wywd<sup>j</sup>ɐ], Cazhya [`kɑʑɐ~`kɑz<sup>j</sup>ɐ] and others. Also, the feat enables spelling of morphologically deviated forms, i.e. despite the lofty style in my Roussish Grammar prescribes or recommends the old declension for i-nouns (médy : médi), also spread through the dialects of the West of the Land, the more recent dialectal forms can now be also easily written down: [médhy :] médhyi [`miɟɪ~`mid^jɪ].

'sh'

As I have earlier put the 'sh' digraph used for a /x/-sound out, having had both 'sh' and 'x' for one the same consonant, now reserving it only for 'x', it's now possible to use 'sh' digraph in the same manner as with other consonants with 'h', i.e. blocking the palatal shift. An example thereof can be seen above.

This does not imply cases with palatalized [c], [ɕ], [ʑ], [ɟ] sounds resulting from gemination in C+i+V set, like in latatie [lɑ`tɑcːɘ], folosiex [fo`lɒɕːɘx] (Loc. of folosie), cwzia (fem. of coziy 'caprine') [`kyʑːɐ], narẽdiou (Dat. of narẽdie) [nɑr^jɐɟːʊ]. Such are not written with any 'h'.

The same applies also for ẽ-ending neuter nouns containing the above consonants, such as: ditẽ [dɪ`cæ], losẽ [lɔ`ɕæ], cozẽ [kɔʑæ], meduédẽ [medwe`ɟæ].

     Male proper names ending phonetically with [-æ] are not meant here, because they normally belong to ẽ-class nouns like ditẽ – this is what the Grammar prescribes – thus, Folodẽ [wɔ`lɒɟæ] : Folodẽte [wolo`ɟætɛ].

     Yet, as for dialectal deviation, where the [-æ] forms have been merged to a-class nouns, ‘h’ trig helps to write them down as well: Folodhya [wɔ`lɒɟæ] : Folodhyui [wɔ`lɒɟi]. In this case they act like the rest of a-class nouns as dolya [`dɒʎæ] (morphologically-grammatically feminine) or Ilia [<sup>(ɩ)</sup>`ʎːɐ] (a proper male name, equiavalent to English 'Elijah') (morphologically feminine, grammatically masculine). In these terms, Folodhya becomes a feminine noun morphologically and grammatically the masculine one.

     Ought to mention, however, that the ẽ-forms are not quite common as diminutive-informals in Roussish (as they are in Russian, yet also served as a-class nouns), while instead another formants are used, such as: -uco and -yko (Omelyko~Melyko←Omelyan, Panyko←Panteleimwn, Pancrat et alia), -xy (Petraxy←Petro, Leubaxy←Leubomir, Ostaxy~Staxy←Ostap), -xno (Mixno←Mixailo, Maxno←Maxim, Maximilyan, Saxno←Olexandro, Yeuxno←Yeuriy), -sy [-ʨ-~-ɕ-] (Stesy←Stepan, Grisy←Grigwr, Olesy~Lesy←Olexa, Ifasy~Fasy←Ifan) etc.